iQuest Research Project

I have decided to research Lance Armstrong for my research project. I was stumped between choosing Aaron Burr and Lance Armstrong, each one representing a different interest of mine.  Aaron Burr is known as an extremely passionate lawyer who was the third vice president of the United States.  Aaron Burr also killed his biggest political rival, Alexander Hamilton, in a duel.  On the other hand, Lance Armstrong is the most iconic American cyclist in all disciplines. Lance won the Tour de France seven times before his titles were revoked. I strongly disagree with most of the negative attention he has received over the past decade. Lance is a testicular cancer survivor, arguably his largest accomplishment, and no cycling organization can ever take that away from him. His cancer spread to his brain and lungs, two vital organs for the sport of cycling. After this lance went on to win the largest bike race in the world, seven times. Although Lance tried to hide some of his doping, he was not alone. He competed during a time where most cyclists used performance enhancing drugs, therefore leveling the playing field for his tour titles. In January 2103, Lance fully admitted to doping during his cycling career, despite denying it for his entire career. Despite his drug usage, Lance is the greatest cyclist that The United States of America has ever seen.

October Accomplishments

October Accomplishments

This month I was able to effectively complete four out of the five goals that I planned. All of my goals were achievable in my opinion, which is why I set them. Each goal, however, required an application of my communication skills or hard work. My first goal was to talk to my mentor about attending trial with him.  My second goal was to continue work on the BP case and complete 25-30 letters each Monday that I worked. Thirdly, I set out to win a CCCX super D race. Fourthly, I wanted to approach Nolan about making phone calls to BP clients for the firm. Lastly, I sought to pursue more challenging and intriguing tasks for the firm. I completed two of these goals in the last week of October, suggesting the difficulty that they presented.

The goal that I failed to achieve this month was to win a CCCX super D race within the month of October. On September 29 I placed 2^nd in category two, sparking my goal for a win. Unfortunately, only one CCCX super D race was scheduled for October and my team could not attend, I did not end up racing that race. This is the reason that I could not complete my goal. I want to continue this goal into the month of December because no super D races are scheduled for November.

Lastly I will present a diagnosis of all goals that I set in October. My goals for the month and the results:

Talk to Joe about attending a trial once during the month. Accomplished. I spoke to Joe about attending trials and he agreed to bring me and show me around. Unfortunately no trial opportunities were available in October but I plan to attend in November and December

Complete 25-30 resend/dodger letters every Monday that I work on BP claims. Accomplished

Win a cccx super d race before the end of the month. Not accomplished. I didn’t end up attending the race I wanted to and I placed second in the prior race.

Talk to Nolan about possibly answering phones. Accomplished. Now I am primarily using the phones.

Find a way to work on trials or more important tasks of the firm. Accomplished. Nolan is very happy with my work and my tasks are  increasing in difficulty

Responsibility

In my opinion responsibility is the root of all other pillars portrayed in character counts. Responsibility is being accountable, or proving to others that you are trustworthy. Responsibility is being mature enough to respect others and accept people for the way that they are. Responsibility is being self-disciplined and having the integrity to be fair, even when no one else is watching. Responsibility is being accountable and caring about your influence in the world and caring for others. Responsibility is doing what you are supposed to do and more, or, in other words, expressing citizenship and doing your share in the world.

           Responsibility is required in the field of law. Attorneys are responsible for an extremely important part of our society, the application and justice of the law in our lives. Lawyers stick up for all people in need and can always find a way to argue for a person. This holds lawyers responsible to the law and their clients, two opposing, yet harmonious ideas. Attorneys have the obligation to represent their clients to the best of their abilities, but at no point shall they allow wrongful acts to go without consequences for the betterment of our society.  This interesting paradox is the daily responsibility if a lawyer.

          Without responsibility this world would amount to utter chaos.  If no one was held accountable for their actions or held no guidance in their future endeavors, not much would actually amount to significance in our brains. Therefore, people would lose track of achieving their purpose in life.

Howdy...

Hello again, currently, I am interning at Rueb & Motta law firm on Mondays from 2:30-6:00. My mentor is Joe Motta, but I have been working with an associate Nolan for most of all time I have spent at the firm. Nolan is a recent graduate from University of California San Diego and is working to save money to be able to attend law school next year.  Working with Nolan is challenging and fun because we have a lot of similarities.  He earned his BA in philosophy and that is what I want to major in when I go to college.  Nolan also loves to crack jokes and keep the workplace interesting.  Together we have taken the task of reaching out to the entire BP oil spill clean up crew that the firm is representing. Nolan will work on the phones, calling people.  Once Nolan has called the people he will either label them as RESEND or DODGER.  With that information I will enter their name and address on a respective letter and mail that letter to the people.  I am extremely interested in this case and feel like I am doing something important when I reach out to these people, which is the biggest satisfaction I have while working at the firm.  I sometimes get frustrated with the work though because I do the same monotonous process for three and a half hours. I have learned that I enjoy the environment and workplace of being a lawyer, but being a lawyer requires a lot of “grunt work.”  So far, iQuest is an amazing program that really lets you immerse yourself in all of the positives and negatives of your passion.  I am thankful for my opportunities so far and excited for my upcoming work!

Goals

My goals for this year are diverse and unrelated.  I would like to see myself at the end of the year excelling in multiple aspects of my life.  In terms of mountain biking, what I plan to pursue second semester, I am determined to finish in the top three in northern California varsity high school overall mountain biking league and finish in the top seven at state championships.  Along with this I want to win a CCCX race before the end of the school year and place in the top five of a US cup race.  Adding to this, I will be working at a law firm for the first semester.  At the law firm I will be making phone calls, sending paperwork, and helping with the firms biggest case, representing the workers from Deepwater Horizon’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010. I worked at this firm last week and spent most of the time sending contract agreements to injured Deepwater Horizon workers. I found out that a settlement has already been reached and now it is up to the firm to get compensation to whoever needs it.  The firm I work at is partnered with another firm to complete this and they split the workers 50/50. Hopefully on Monday I will be able to go to court with my mentor who is currently working on all of the other needs of the firm. My goals for the first semester include learning how to be successful in trial and how to effectively pursue potential clients.  The firm I am working at has a prestigious reputation and has a couple big clients. I am very excited for my upcoming opportunities.

iQuest

Hello my name is Roheek Dimundu and I will be keeping a blog this year on my adventures as a student in iQuest. I hope to be interning at a law firm this year. I hold a great interest in the field of law. My experience in the field of law is stated as follows: I attended a Lead America Law and Trial Camp this summer at Stanford University, I was the superior court judge for my city at boys state, which is a government camp for incoming seniors, and I have participated and have had success for four years on the debate team and two years as captain of the debate team.  Along with my interest for debate and law, I have a passion for riding mountain bikes.  I have raced on the mountain bike team for my high school for four years and have been captain for the last two years. Last year I finished in the top five for varsity riders in northern California and I look forward to improving on that finish this year. Best case scenario, I would like to see myself working in a law office first semester and be exploring an individual project of training for mountain bike season second semester. I look forward to a great year with endless possibilities!